Review: Haven

Haven by Kristi Cook

Published by Simon Pulse

Genre: YA

$9.99 (US paperback)

320 pages

What it's about (from the author's site):

Violet McKenna isn’t a normal girl with normal teenage issues; she has more to contend with than most people could handle. Violet thought she was just crazy when she had a vivid vision of her dad’s murder. Her life started falling apart when her premonition came true. She’s had flashes of other events too–the problem was nobody believed her until she found a new school: Winterhaven.

At Winterhaven, Violet finally feels like she belongs. She quickly finds a close group friends and discovers that they too have psychic ‘gifts’—as do all the students at Winterhaven. But as soon as she feels settled she discovers the most intriguing and alluring boy she has ever met, and things quickly go awry. As the attraction between them grows, intense visions of the boy’s death start to haunt her. In her premonitions, the secret he is unwilling to share begins to reveal itself.

And to Violet’s horror, she learns that their destinies are intertwined in a critical–and deadly–way.

My thoughts:
I read this book about a year ago and never wrote a review for it so I decided to reread it and post my thoughts on it. I really wish I had the time to reread all my books because I found that rereading them really is the best way to decide how I really feel about a book.

The first time I read it, I loved it. I remembered there was a boarding school, a group of girls who were friends, and of course a dream worthy guy at the center, and some form of mystery surrounding him. That was kinda all I remembered about it. Apparently it did not stick with me very well. And really, that pretty much sums up the book anyways. 5 girls, 1 hott guy, and a boarding school.

This book is a little cliche. I think that needs to be said. There is the typical boarding school cop out so that parents are not involved in the book, and the school and its students are special in their own ways. In a lot of ways, this book reminds me of Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins.

The one and only complaint I have about this book is there is not enough detail! The ending just sort of happens. The big finale is only about 4 pages long and nothing is really explained and it just goes so fast. Four pages. Four freaking pages for the thing the whole book leads up to. This needed to be drawn out some more, have more fighting and details. It had such potential to be really fantastic.

And that really is the only complaint I have. I really enjoyed the characters and everything else about this book while reading it both times. It's a super fast read and all around fun.

My rating: 8/10